september 19th, 4:30-5:30 pm

"Medically Supervised Drug Injection Sites: More Harm Than Good?"Julia Romanski '16Scientific Communication My presentation will be about medically supervised drug injection sites (MSDIS). At an MSDIS, people inject drugs under the supervision of medical staff who intervene in the case of an overdose. The goals of MSDIS’s are to reach the target population, encourage the use of treatment services, improve health while reducing risky behaviors, reduce the incidence of infectious disease such as HIV, reduce overdoses and overdose deaths, reduce disorder, and avoid an increase in crime. However, there is evidence that many of these aims have not conclusively been met. Moreover, evidence suggests that MSIDS’s have a negative impact on public safety and the health of drug users.

"Members of Young Kinematic Associations Near the Sun"Sarah Blunt '17Physics In the 1990s, unbound, co-moving associations of stars between ~8/50 million years old were identified within 70 parsecs of the Sun. Studying the kinematics and age-related characteristics of these associations can greatly aid our understanding of probable brown dwarf locations and of planetary formation. We employed a novel method of determining association age by computing a proxy for the volumes of the associations as a function of time. At the time in the past when the volume of the association is at a minimum, the association is likely to have formed. This serves to provide additional evidence supporting known and unknown characteristics of these associations.

"More Important Than Money: Sleep"Eric Bai '15Psychology/Cognitive Science The physical realities of sleep deprivation are unmistakable: bleary-eyed vision, lack of concentration and the inability to engage in any sort of complex thinking. Sleep deprivation, whether out of habit or necessity, is an inconvenient and uncomfortable condition. Yet, when considering the economic and social consequences of sleep deprivation, the true cost of lack of sleep becomes staggering. With an estimated one third, or 50 to 70 million, US adults reporting insufficient sleep and a purported $15 to $92 billion in annual economic losses as a result of sleep-induced negligence, inquiry into social assumptions regarding sleep becomes pertinent.

"What is the Triple Helix and how you can get involved"A short presentation by the Brown Chapter of the Triple Helix. The Triple Helix, Inc. is an undergraduate, student-run organization dedicated to the promotion of interdisciplinary discussion. The Triple Helix at Brown is part of a network of over twenty chapters around the world. We encourage critical analysis of legally and socially important issues in science and promote the exchange of ideas. Our flagship publication, the bi-annual Science in Society Review and our online blog Ursa Sapiens provide research-based perspectives on pertinent scientific issues facing society today. We hope to inspire scientific curiosity and discovery, encouraging undergraduates to explore interdisciplinary careers that push traditional boundaries.